2016 April Garden Gardening Update

2016 April Garden Gardening Update

If you’re a gardener (and if you’re reading this you probably are!) spring time excites you like no other season. April is a great month to get in the garden and get some work done but always remember to take a few moments to appreciate what’s growing! Here’s a quick rundown of a little of what is growing in my April garden in Tennessee.

The Yoshino Cherry trees were spectacular this year! We had a storm this week that blew all the petals everywhere and it appeared like someone had a wedding in our backyard. The flowers only last a little while but they were amazing while they painted our yard in color.

My red buckeye tree is just beginning blooming. This native plant is a hummingbird magnet and it’s coming out just in time for the little birds to enjoy.

My hops vine (‘Cascade’) is coming back nicely. It’s a great vine for creating a deciduous privacy screen or for growing brewing hops for your garden. It is a prolific producer! Hops are very easy to propagate through layering or division. Just pin down a piece of the vine and it will root in a few weeks (6-8). Once the hops vine has rooted just cut the vine below the roots and repot or transplant where you want it to grow. Hops can grow 20 feet or more in a season with the right growing conditions.

We still have a couple daffodils blooming away. At this point most of the daffodils have finished their blooming cycle. I leave the daffodil foliage up as long as possible before cutting it down so the bulbs can gather energy for next year’s flowers. Daffodils are a must have bulb in my mind since nothing disturbs them. The deer and squirrels both leave daffodils alone!

My Bluebells have been relatively slower to establish but I’ve seen some significant growth this year. I planted them a few years ago from bulbs. They will eventually colonize some areas of my backyard carpeting the gardens with a blue flowering groundcover near my blue shed! A perfect match don’t you think?

The azaleas are also blooming away. I have forgotten the name of these pink azaleas but they bloom reliably every spring.